Moussaoui death penalty case turned over to the jury

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Prosecutors showed the most gruesome and heart-rending photos of Sept. 11 again on Monday and told jurors that only Zacarias Moussaoui’s death could give the victims justice. The defense asked jurors to spurn retribution and not let a delusional and inept terrorist bait them into making him a martyr.

With those final arguments, the life of the 37-year-old Frenchman was placed in the hands of the same nine men and three women who early this month found him responsible for at least one death on Sept. 11, 2001, even though he was in jail at the time.

Now they must weigh the suffering and the glee the confessed al-Qaida conspirator took in it on the witness stand against his role, his mental health and background to decide whether he deserves the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of release.

The jurors deliberated three hours, and will resume this morning.

Prosecutor David Novak showed photos of a charred body in a Pentagon office, of body parts at the base of the World Trade Center, and of young children who lost a parent.

“No one can give them justice but you,” Novak said. “You are the voice of this nation.”

He told jurors a death penalty would say: “We are the United States of America, and we are not going to put up with a bunch of thugs who invoke God’s name to kill nearly 3,000 Americans.”

Displaying a photo of the youngest Sept. 11 victim, 21/2-year-old Christine Hansen, who died on her way to Disneyland, Novak recalled Moussaoui’s “utter lack of remorse” when he took the witness stand. “How can any human being rejoice in her death?” Novak asked.

Defense attorney Gerald Zerki pointed out that even the Nuremberg trials of Nazis after World War II handed out only 11 death sentences for “the worst atrocities in the history of man.”

Moussaoui is a “a veritable caricature of an al-Qaida terrorist,” “the operative who couldn’t shoot straight” and “the only al-Qaida operative inept enough to be captured before 9/11,” Zerkin said.

Moussaoui’s testimony about how he relished the pain of the victims “is proof that he wants you to sentence him to death,” Zerkin said. “He is baiting you into it. He came to America to die in jihad and you are his last chance.”